a part of the catholic church of Christ; that their authority, institution, sanctity, &c. are by no means superior to those of other churches; and that, in several respects, they are even inferior to the rest of the catholic church. The picture drawn of their position, by Gregory XVI. in his encyclical letter to all the bishops in 1832, is truly deplorable, though it embraces but a part of the evils which afflict that church. men. "We speak, venerable brethren, that which ye behold with your own eyes; which, therefore, we deplore with united tears. An unrestrained wickedness, a shameless science, a dissolute licentiousness, are triumphant. The sanctity of holy things is despised, and the majesty of divine worship, which possesses such great power, and is of so great necessity, is blamed, profaned, derided by wicked Hence sound doctrine is perverted, and errors of all kinds are daringly disseminated. The laws of sacred things, the institutions, the very holiest discipline, are not safe from the audacity of those who speak unrighteously. This, our see of the most blessed Peter, in which Christ laid the foundation of his church, is most grievously assailed; and the bonds of unity are daily more weakened and broken ". The divine authority of the church is impugned, and, her rights being torn away, she is subjected to earthly considerations ; and reduced to a base servitude, she is most unjustly exposed to the hatred of the people. The "This probably alludes to the dissemination of anti-papal principles in Italy, Austria, and Germany, where the maxims introduced by De Hontheim, Van Espen, Eybel, and all the school of modern canonists, under the influence of Joseph II., Leopold grand duke of Tuscany, Tanucci, &c. still prevail, and are encouraged by the governments of those countries. These principles reduce the papal power to a mere name, and transfer it partly to the bishops, but chiefly to the civil magistrate. See Appendix I. • The servitude to which the German, Austrian, and Italian obedience due to bishops is infringed, and their rights are trampled on. The academies and schools resound in a dreadful manner, with new and monstrous opinions, by which the catholic faith is no longer assailed secretly and by mining, but a horrible and impious war is now openly waged against it. For when, by the instruction and example of the teachers, the minds of youth are corrupted, the destruction of religion is vast, and the vilest corruption of morals becomes general." He afterwards alludes thus to the opinions of the reforming party in the Romish church. "It would be unlawful, and altogether contrary to that respect with which the laws of the church are to be received, to condemn, by an insane love of judging, the discipline sanctioned by her; which includes the administration of sacred things, the rule of morals, and the rights of the church and its ministers; or to represent it as hostile to certain principles of the rights of nature; or to pronounce it defective and imperfect, and subject to the civil magistrate P. As it is certain... that the church was taught by Jesus Christ, &c. ... it is evidently absurd, and most injurious to her, to put forward a certain restoration or regeneration, as necessary to provide for her security and increase; as if she could be supposed liable to defect or obscuration, or other evils of that kind; by which attempts the innovators have it in view, to lay the See Appendix III. P This is a manifest allusion to the principles promulgated by all the new canonists and reforming theologians, in the Roman church, from the middle of last century. churches were reduced, in the in France. .... foundation of a new human institution, and that what St. Cyprian detested may occur; namely, that what is divine, may become a human church" "And here we wish to excite your constancy for religion, against a most shameful conspiracy, formed against clerical celibacy, which you know every day to become more vehement, some even of the ecclesiastical order uniting with the most abandoned philosophers of our age; and who, forgetful of their character and office, carried away by the blandishments of pleasure, have proceeded to such a pitch of licence, that in some places they have dared to address public and reiterated petitions to princes, to destroy this holy discipline "." Such is the state of the Roman church; full of infidelity, immorality, division, uneasiness, innovations, enslaved by the civil powers, and rent internally by Jansenism, heresy, schism, and indifference. If she alone constituted the catholic church, Christianity would indeed be at the lowest ebb, and the gates of hell would almost have prevailed against it. SECTION IV. SOCIETIES OF THE ROMAN COMMUNION OF THE MODERN FOUNDATION. Hitherto I have spoken of the ancient churches of the Roman obedience, which were not founded by an act of separation from older Christian societies, but were originally gathered from the heathen world. I am now to speak of modern communities, under the title of churches, The allusion here is to the Jansenistic principles and practices which will be detailed in Appendix I. In Bavaria and other parts of Germany. See an article on the Church in Silesia, Foreign Quarterly Review for 1827, p. 515, &c. The original of these passages, from the bull of Gregory XVI. will be found in Appendix IV. established or protected by the care of the Roman pontiffs, in localities where there were previously existing branches of the catholic and apostolic church; and of other modern Roman societies. In order to judge rightly of these societies, we must discriminate several different cases. First, if members of the Latin churches should find themselves resident, in quest of merchandize or other temporal objects, in the regions of the Oriental churches, and should be unable, from ignorance of the language, or from some other inconvenience, to receive the full benefit of administration in the Oriental church, it would not be schismatical in them to call in the aid of Latin priests, with consent of the ecclesiastical authorities of the East. Accordingly it is known, that Latin convents existed in Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other parts of the East, before the division of the Eastern and Western churches. Secondly, if the Latins of the East were separated by the Greeks from their communion afterwards, as appears to have been the case, it could not be schismatical in them to provide priests for themselves, and even bishops, to administer ordination and confirmation. This would be justified by the necessity of the case; and being in its nature only a temporary arrangement, would not interfere with the essential principles of unity. Hence we cannot altogether condemn the Latins for appointing some Latin priests and bishops in Palestine and Syria, in the time of the crusades, and for retaining some convents and priests there still. Thirdly, any Eastern heretics who chose to unite themselves with the Roman communion, and who were on that account not acknowledged by the Oriental churches, were still not in schism. Hence the Maronites of Syria, who renounced the Eutychian errors, and the Indians of St. Thomas, who renounced the Nestorian heresy, and remain to this day united to the Roman see, are not cut off from catholic unity, though they do not communicate with the other Oriental churches. Fourthly, it was entirely unlawful for the Latins to eject the Greek bishops or priests, or to force them by persecution to submit to the Roman see. It was equally unlawful to ordain Latin bishops in their place, and to treat them as heretics or schismatics. But this was done in Cyprus, and many of the islands of the Archipelago, and in Greece. Therefore all the Latin societies thus formed, had a schismatical origin; and this fault could not be healed by the encouragement which the Roman pontiffs afforded to these proceedings, which was in itself blameable, and proceeded from false and exaggerated notions of their own rights. Fifthly, when Roman churches were founded in South America, Canada, the Philippines, &c. by the Europeans who first colonized or subdued those countries, such churches are altogether free from schism, and are invested with the original rights of catholic churches, so that no one has a right to establish rival communities among them, with a view to oppose their authority, or draw proselytes from them. If, in Canada, the English community united to our catholic churches have bishops and priests, it is only as a matter of necessity, because the church there refuses them communion, and they are properly for the English only. The arrangement must be considered only provisional in a certain measure, and not designed to interfere with the prior claims of the Roman churches there, within their proper districts. The same may be observed of our clergy on the continent of Europe. |